


Sticky Fingers

by holograms



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, picking pockets is not the best way to flirt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 20:21:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5640613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holograms/pseuds/holograms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I have your wallet, sir. I have been looking for you!”</p><p>“You mean you <i>stole</i> my wallet.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sticky Fingers

**Author's Note:**

> i can't stop writing about these guys

~~~~“Pardon me!”

Aaron looks over his shoulder to see a frazzled-looking man making a beeline towards him, shouting and zigzagging around people in the crowd. All instincts tell Aaron that he should turn the other way and keep going, but he stands rooted to the spot and waits for the man to catch up to him.

 _What could it hurt?_  Aaron thinks.

Eventually, the man makes his way to Aaron and stands at his side. “Are you...,” he pauses, and looks down and reads something that’s in his hands. “Aaron Burr, sir?”

The man is familiar, but Aaron can’t quite place him. The stranger is around his age, but looks like a mess — his scarf hangs uneven around his neck and strands of hair are falling out of his messy bun, and he’s breathing heavy, as if he had been running. Aaron wonders how far he’s been following him.

“It depends. Who’s asking?” Aaron asks, uneasy.

“Oh! I’m Alexander Hamilton,” messy-bun guy says, and he says his name with certainty, like Aaron _should_ know his name already. “I have your wallet, sir. I have been looking for you!”

And then he waves the object he had been holding, which upon inspection _is_ Aaron’s wallet.

Regardless of seeing the proof in front him, Aaron checks his pocket, and finds it empty, which is strange, because he doesn’t remember where he could have lost his wallet—

—and _that’s_ when he remembers how he knows Alexander.

Their first meeting had been innocuous enough — Manhattan is busy, so Aaron had thought nothing of it when a short, dark-haired man collided shoulders with him on the sidewalk thirty minutes ago. They had both mumbled their apologizes without making eye contact, and then went on their way in opposite directions.

But now that Aaron thinks of it, he remembers feeling how Alexander’s hands had briefly fumbled at his sides when he ran smack into him — Aaron had thought that it was so he could catch his balance, but he could have easily slipped his hand and plucked his wallet from his back pocket during the confusion.

Aaron narrows his eyes. “You mean you _stole_ my wallet,” he says, and he knows he’s right when Alexander’s excited expression immediately falters. “What the hell, man? Who even picks pockets anymore?”

Alexander lets out a laugh, one of those nervous ones when someone isn’t sure what to say and they want to break the tension. “I’m returning it to you, though?” he says, his voice hitching up at the end, making it sound like a question.

“Then why did you take it in the first place?”

“Because I—fuck, never mind it’s stupid.”

“No, what is it?” Aaron has had enough of this guy already. “You’re too good to beg for money like Oliver Twist, so you have to resort to stealing it? Or did you think I’d give you a reward for finding it?”

Alexander frowns and looks genuinely hurt, and for a moment Aaron feels bad he was so harsh on him.

“That’s a low blow, dude,” Alexander says. “Oliver Twist? _I’m_ an orphan.”

Aaron tilts his head. _Interesting,_ he thinks, and suddenly he feels a desperate need to know Alexander. He finds himself saying, “Me too,” and wondering why he’s divulging close-kept secrets to a stranger.

He’s about to apologize for his rudeness, for speaking without thinking — which is something he _never_ does, but Alexander has aggravated him enough to provoke it — but he doesn’t have to, because Alexander is absolutely _ecstatic_ , slightly gasping and then grabbing Aaron by the arms, his brown eyes going wide as he examines him.

“We’re both orphans? How cool! God, I wish—”

“I don’t think _cool_ is the word I’d use,” Aaron says, pushing away Alexander’s hold, and putting a succinct halt on Alexander formulating any further similarities between them.

Alexander looks momentarily perplexed, and it looks like he’s going to speak again but Aaron beats him to it. “But yes, what a coincidence,” he says. “Out of all the people to have pick-pocketed, you took from a fellow orphan.”

“Well, I didn’t know that _then_ ,” Alexander says, like it makes the situation better.

Aaron lets out a frustrated sigh. “Why did you do it anyway? If you intended to give it back?”

A flush spreads across Alexander’s cheeks. “I wanted to talk to you,” he admits. “I saw you and I thought you were attractive and then I saw you reading a law textbook, which is what I’m studying, too. I’m a new transfer to Columbia, and when I was going through your wallet, I saw that you have a student ID from there. But anyway, I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t know what to say and I panicked so I thought if I took your wallet and returned it to you we would have a good reason to talk, but obviously I didn’t account for you being a stoic asshole—“

“This is the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard,” Aaron says. But for some reason, it’s endearing; Alexander flustered and babbling is kind of cute.

Alexander shrugs. “Well, we _are_ talking,” he points out, and then smiles at Aaron.

There’s a funny feeling in Aaron’s chest and suddenly, he wants to make Alexander smile more, so he asks, “Could I buy you a drink?”

“That would be nice,” Alexander says, and when his smile brightens, Aaron decides the offer is definitely worth it.

Aaron hums in agreement as they start walking towards the nearest bar. “You know what else would be nice?” he asks.

“What’s that?”

“If you’d give me back my wallet.”

**Author's Note:**

> come yell with me about Hamilton at tumblr @acanofpeaches


End file.
